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Day of national mourning on Friday for 13 killed by Madeira oak

Portugal's government has decreed a day of national mourning for Friday "for the irreparable loss of human lives" when a tree fell onto a crowd of pilgrims in Madeira on Tuesday, killing 13 people.

The announcement came on Thursday after the day's regular weekly cabinet meeting in Lisbon.

"The National Mourning coincides with the funeral ceremonies of the victims of the accident as a way of [expressing the] sorrow and solidarity of the whole country," the government said in a statement on Thursday after the meeting.

A spokesman told Lusa that the government would be represented at the funeral in Madeira by the cabinet office minister, Maria Manuel Leitão Marques.

A large, 200-year-old oak tree fell to the ground in the Largo do Monte, in Funchal, amid Assumption Day celebrations that were attended by hundreds of people, as the crowd awaited the arrival of the procession. It killed 13 people and injured 49; seven were still in hospital on Thursday.

Among the dead was a one-year-old and the others aged between 28 and 59. One French woman and a Hungarian man were the only two foreigners killed.

The results of an expert study into why the tree feel are to be released on Friday, the mayor of Funchal, Paulo Cafôfo, said on Thursday.